Apple iOS Location Tracking

With Apple, at least you can opt out of all location info going to Apple

You're being disengenous, Apple's own apps request location data the same as any other. I know this because of having denied the permission when prompted.

Yes, that is different. Apple will still be collecting location data to "improve maps" and for other enumerated purposes.

This is only true for a very small percentage of users. Most apple users share location with family or one of many other apps that post location history to the cloud.

Apple doesn't not get _your_ location without an app requesting it.They periodically send the location of nearby cell-towers and wifi hotspots (all public information) back to a crowdsourced database. _Your_ identity isn't associated with any of it. Apple doesn't know who you are or where your phone is. They do not store GPS coordinates. A single cell tower is nowhere near accurate enough to determine the location of the phone, etc etc.Google/Android do this too: <a hre

The point was that he has no idea where the boundaries around between Apple and Google and what is within the realm of possibility of abuse and what is strictly impossible without him tapping "accept" via a system prompt. It is not possible for Google to track his location without him granting permission to do so on his iPhone. It is not possible to get precise location data without a prompt and a blue system indicator. It is not possible to get repeated location data without iOS event

Add Background App Refresh to this please - considering that apps exfiltrate 4G/WiFi connectivity info (helpful to triangulate your current location) regularly to tracker/analytics scum APIs with this feature - it should be exposed as a Privacy setting, not buried in Settings. I don’t understand what’s hard about this for Apple to be eerily silent on this.

It isn't. Apple is sending your location and the MAC addresses of other devices your phone sees.It's been doing this for nearly a decade since I believe their acquisition of WifiSlam back in 2013. They use it roughly triangulate a device's position when GPS/Cellular is not available.

Yes, but the permission is per-app. Let’s say I approve location for the app because the app’s function requires it: the third party spying SDKs embedded in the app send that location data off to third parties without notifying me or permitting me to stop it.Apple permits this behavior in the App Store.Furthermore, IP address is coarse location even if you don’t grant the app permission, via GeoIP databases.Long story short, Apple allows apps in the store to embed silent, nonconsensual

You seem to be simplifying things a bit too much. Apple doesn’t keep track of where your device has been. Your iPhone knows but it’s not being sent to Apple. Google has been shown to know this data even when you disable as many location services as you can.